Ancient Egyptian Medicine: The Contribution of Twenty-first Century Science

2013 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 157-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalie David
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
First Century ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Plant Materials ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Disease Occurrence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Century Science

Preserved human remains from ancient Egypt provide an unparalleled opportunity for studies in the history of disease and medical practices. Egyptian medical papyri describe physiological concepts, disease diagnoses and prescribed treatments which include both ‘irrational’,(magical) and ‘rational’ (surgical and pharmaceutical) procedures. Many previous studies of Egyptian medicine have concluded that ‘irrational’ methods predominated, but this perception is increasingly challenged by results from scientific studies of ancient human remains (including autopsy, radiology, endoscopy, palaeohistology and immunological and molecular analyses), and plant materials. This paper demonstrates the significant contribution being made by multidisciplinary studies to our understanding of disease occurrence and medical treatments in ancient Egypt, and considers the feasibility of developing epidemiological comparisons of ancient and modern data sets that will provide acceptable historical contexts for contemporary disease studies.

Merit Ptah, “The First Woman Physician”: Crafting of a Feminist History with an Ancient Egyptian Setting

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-106
Author(s):  
Jakub M Kwiecinski
Keyword(s):  
Role Models ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Black African ◽  
Woman Physician ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
History Books

Abstract Merit Ptah is widely described as “the first woman physician and scientist” on the Internet and in popular history books. This essay explores the origins of this figure, showing that Merit Ptah came into being in the 1930s when Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead misinterpreted a report about an authentic ancient Egyptian healer. Merit Ptah gradually became a prominent figure in popular historical accounts during second-wave of feminism, and, in the twenty-first century she appeared in Wikipedia and subsequently spread throughout the Internet as a female (sometimes black African) founding figure. The history of Merit Ptah reveals powerful mechanisms of knowledge creation in the network of amateur historians, independently from the scholarly community. The case of Merit Ptah also pinpoints factors enabling the spread of erroneous historical accounts: the absence of professional audience, the development of echo chambers due to an obscured chain of knowledge transmission, the wide reach of the Internet, the coherence with existing preconceptions, the emotional charge of heritage, and even – in the case of ancient Egypt – the tendency to perceive certain pasts through a legendary lens. At the same time, the story of Merit Ptah reveals how important role models have been for women entering science and medicine.

Therapeutics

2018 ◽  
pp. 51-76
Author(s):  
Philip A. Mackowiak
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Drug Therapy ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Recent Innovation ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Current ◽  
Proper Balance

Chapter 3 (“Therapeutics”) contains a series of works that reflect the long history of medical treatments, beginning with therapeutic rituals and progressing to modern intensive care. Whereas there is a current tendency to think of drug therapy as a recent innovation, written records of the use of salicylates, cannabis, mandrake, and opioids in ancient Egypt, Greece, and China attest to the fact that some of the earliest physicians gave patients drugs that were both effective and surprisingly modern. For over 1500 years, however, these were less important than interventions directed at correcting humoral disproportions. Some of this chapter’s most engaging works depict the bleeding, purging, cupping, and burning that were performed in an effort to achieve a proper balance between the various corporal humors. Also depicted in stunning works are the roles played by nurses, hospitals, and quacks in the evolution of medical practice.

scholarly journals EGYPTOLOGIST Ye. V. CHEREZOV (1912-1988) AND HIS SCIENTIFIC LEGACY

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
A. Kotsur
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Scientific Heritage ◽  
Scientific Legacy ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Land Relations ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of

The article deals with Yevgeniy Vikentiyovych Cherezov, the most important milestones of his life, with his scientific and pedagogical activity as well-known Ukrainian Egyptian, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, long time head of the Department of History of the Ancient World and Middle Ages of Chernivtsi University. The focus is on poorly researched pages of biography of a scientist and teacher. Separately are analyzed his scientific works, in particular, concerning Ancient Egypt. The scientist’s publication has been characterized the problems of decoding of Egyptian hieroglyphs on sphinxes; land relations; the situation of ancient Egyptian slaves and various categories of peasants; tax system; the classification and description of agricultural tools of Ancient Egypt; development of fisheries; economy and state system of the period of the Ancient kingdom and others like that. The article focuses on the monograph by Ye. Cherezov "Agriculture Engineering in Ancient Egypt". An assessment is given on the scientific heritage of the prominent Ukrainian Egyptologist.

scholarly journals A POSTCOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE OF A VOYAGE TO EGYPT IN THE TRAVELOGUE UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN BY MILORAD RAJČEVIĆ

2020 ◽  
pp. 217-231
Author(s):  
UROŠ MATIĆ
Keyword(s):  
Far East ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
The Far East ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Egypt ◽  
Insight Into

Milorad Rajčević (1890–1964), a famous Serbian traveller, adventurer, and travelogue writer, also went to Egypt in 1921 as part of his world travels. Impressions and experiences from his travels were published consecutively in Belgrade magazine Little Journal and in the form of monographs Under the African Sun (1924 and 1925) and In the Far East (1930). These writings provide us with an important insight into the Serbian bourgeois class image of both ancient Egypt and Egypt in the time Rajčević made his journey. His impressions and experiences from Egypt were transmitted through his travelogue Under the African Sun and were shaped by colonial discourse of a European traveller. It provides us with an insight into the attitudes towards ancient and modern Egypt before academic interest in studying ancient Egyptian past in Serbia. The travelogue contains numerous Orientalist ideas about Arabic population of Egypt. From the point of view of history of archaeology, particularly important are his comments on progress and modernisation. In that context, his comparisons of European with Ancient Egyptian cultural and technical achievements play a significant role. This paper analyses the content of the travelogue Under the African Sun from a postcolonial perspective and argues that although certain ideas inherent to colonial episteme of his time can be recognized, it is not possible to pinpoint the exact sources Rajčević used.

scholarly journals ЕКОНОМІЧНІ ІДЕЇ ДАВНЬОЄГИПЕТСЬКОГО ТВОРУ «ПОВЧАННЯ АХТОЯ, СИНА ДУАУФА, СВОЄМУ СИНОВІ ПІОПІ»

2014 ◽  
pp. 132-134
Author(s):  
О. Ю. Литвин ◽  
О. П. Панченко
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Level Of Economic Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Level

Розглянуто основні економічні ідеї давньоєгипет-ського твору «Повчання Ахтоя, сина Дуауфа, своємусинові Піопі». Аналізуються публікації українських іросійських дослідників, істориків і публіцистів, при-свячені дослідженню цієї проблеми. Доводиться ак-туальність і значимість економічних ідей давньоєги-петського твору, фокусується увага на їх впливі насучасну економіку. Наводяться факти, що підтвер-джують висновок про високий рівень економічногорозвитку Стародавнього Єгипту. Акцентовано увагучитачів на тому, що економічні ідеї зазначеного дав-ньоєгипетського твору доцільно розглядати не лишев контексті розвитку економічної історії та історіїекономічної думки, але й використовувати їх. The basic economic ideas of ancient Egyptian work "Ahtoy’s precept, Duauf’s son, to his son Piopy" were considered. Publications of ukrainian and russian researchers, historians and journalists devoted to the study of this problem were analyzed. We prove relevance and significance of economic ideas of ancient Egyptian work, we focus attention on their impact on the contemporary economy. We give the facts, which support the eduction of a high level of economic development of ancient Egypt. The attention of readers we draw on the economic ideas of this ancient Egyptian works should be considered not only in the context of economic history and the history of economic thought, but also to use them.

Theory and Practice in Ancient Egyptian Literature

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verena M. Lepper ◽  
Roland Enmarch
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
Egyptian Literature ◽  
Theory Of Literature ◽  
Ancient Texts

This introductory chapter discusses briefly the history of the study of Egyptian literature, highlighting how broader developments in the theory of literature have come to be applied within Egyptology, and outlining the significant interpretative issues that still remain. This is particularly acute when studying a civilisation such as Ancient Egypt, with an only fragmentarily preserved literate culture, and no continuous tradition of reception to condition modern engagement with the ancient texts. The chapter reviews the approaches taken by contributors to the volume, and evaluates how they relate to recent developments in the application of theoretically informed approaches to Egyptian texts. The range of topics covered demonstrates the vitality and diversity of current Egyptological engagement with Ancient Egyptian texts.

Reception of ancient Egypt

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-96
Author(s):  
Florian Ebeling
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
The West ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

The history of reception of ancient Egypt deals with the perceptions and images of ancient Egypt in the West that emerged without direct access to ancient Egyptian sources, especially without proper knowledge of the hieroglyphs. It deals with texts, images and art as part of the history of ideas and with material culture as well. It is not about the question of whether these images and concepts correspond to the historical realities in ancient Egypt, but about the question of the way in which ancient Egypt was referred to, and about the relevance of this concept in the history of the West.

Egyptology in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 64-78
Author(s):  
Li Xiaodong
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Great Contribution ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Chinese Perspective ◽  
Egyptian Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Scholars

Egyptology as a discipline developed very late in China, in the 1930s, and from this point onwards, the laying of the foundations of Egyptology took another three generations of effort. This late arrival of the discipline has made it difficult for Chinese scholars to make a great contribution to the development of Egyptology, especially since the history of Egyptology has an almost 200-year legacy in Europe and America. However, the Chinese perspective could help towards an understanding of ancient Egypt from a more global and comparative viewpoint. This chapter sets out a comparative study between the two great civilizations of China and Egypt as an important analytical method, focusing particularly on the comparison between the approaches the two writing systems followed when they invented their written characters, an aspect which reveals detailed ideas about ancient Egyptian culture and society.

scholarly journals Racial ‘Sterility’ and ‘Hyperfecundity’ in Fascist Italy. Biological Politics of Sex and Reproduction

Fascism ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Sophia Quine
Keyword(s):  
Population Change ◽  
First Century ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Assisted Conception ◽  
Binomial Theorem ◽  
Italian Fascism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Full Force ◽  
Century Science

This article explores a new dimension in fascist studies, eugenic studies, and the more mainstream history of Italy, Europe, and modernity. It asks scholars to reconsider the centrality of race and biology to the political programme of Italian fascism in power. Fascism’s ‘binomial theorem’ of optimum population change was characterized as a commitment both to increase the ‘quantity’ (number) and improve the ‘quality’ (biology) of the Italian ‘race’. These twin objectives came to fruition in the new scientific and political paradigm known to contemporaries as ‘biological politics’ and to scholars today as ‘biopolitics’. Fascism, this article contends, attempted to utilize the full force of the new ‘biopower’ of reproductive and biogenetic medicine and science in order to realize the aims of its biopolitical agenda for racial betterment through fertility increase. In Italy, fascism encouraged science to tamper with the processes of human reproduction and to extend genetic understanding of diseases which were seen as ‘conquerable’ without sterilization and euthanasia. It began a biotechnological ‘revolution’ that historians often attribute to twenty-first-century science. By exploring the technical innovations in assisted conception which Italian fascism promoted, this article challenges the assumption in much of the scholarship that there was a huge divide between the ‘old’ eugenics of the interwar period and the ‘new’ genetics of recent decades.

scholarly journals An investigation into the ancient Egyptian cultural influences on the Yorubas of Nigeria

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jock M. Agai
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Interpretation

There are many cultural practices that connect ancient Egyptians to the Yorubas and the new interpretation of the Oduduwa legend suggests that the Yorubas have originated or are influenced mainly by the Egyptians. The attestation of Egypt as the main influencer of the Yoruba culture made Egypt significant in the study of the history of the Yoruba people. Some writers are beginning to think that the ancient Egyptians were responsible for introducing and spreading many cultures amongst the Yorubas. As more Yorubas are tracing their origins and the origins of their culture to ancient Egypt, this research investigates whether the Egyptians were the originators and the main spreaders of the afterlife culture in Yorubaland.

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